Introduction
Interracial relationships and racism in the United States and worldwide are some of the most problematic and complex social issues. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is one approach that conquers racism by identifying and investigating the issues of racial injustices, institutional racism, and internalized racial oppression. This theoretical framework has originated among activists and social scholars and gained a controversial reputation in the US public discourse. Along with the concepts of white privilege and white supremacy, CRT is widely discussed in terms of racial and social issues. Therefore, this paper aims to identify and examine how the key ideas of the aforementioned frameworks can travel when discussed not only in the North American context but also in other places. Particularly, the concept of white privilege will be analyzed from the standpoint of adaptation, and the concept of colorblindness will be reviewed as an example of an idea that cannot be modified. Race-based contradictions are the result of historically established relationships, and racism, as a prerequisite for social inequalities, cannot be eradicated as long as the criterion of race is discussed in the context of differences among people.
What is White Privilege?
White privilege is the concept that can be described as the unspoken advantage that white people can have over people of color. There are examples of white privilege in such spheres as healthcare, education, business, and organizational culture. White people are viewed as an invisible race that is not perceived as exotic and is considered dominant in the public sense. Hence, white people never face complications, additional obstacles, or limited opportunities based on presumptions made about the color of their skin (Bhopal, 2018). For people of color, being able to experience the same attitude resembles the essence of a fight for equality.
White people have the social, economic, and political power to silence black people’s views and beliefs. Black people, both men and women, are usually not permitted to hold political offices due to their skin color. Thus, the majority of government officials and politicians are of white origin (Bhopal, 2018). The denial of black people’s political freedom makes the white population enjoy political power; therefore, talking to the majority about the issues of race has always been difficult since they are in a position to stop the conversation at their own will. White people are against the topic of race because they have never had any feelings about the experience of the black community.
In addition, white people have economic power because most of them are financially independent. As a result, the discussion on race in the context of black people’s economic plights is useless because the white population cannot understand the other side (Crenshaw, 1991). This nature of social relationships can be described as admission since there is no symbiosis between the two races due to the aforementioned economic constraints and historical bias.
The aspect of white people not accepting being racist is the issue that deserves discussion within the context of CRT. According to Crenshaw (1991), one of the arguments the white population uses is that it was not their choice to be white to be subjected to privileges. At the same time, as history shows, the concept of slavery was supported by many in the early days. Immorality was common; for instance, women were subjected to forced sexual intercourse with their masters (Crenshaw, 1991). That practice was a clear violation of black women’s rights.
In the United States, black women were not afforded bodily privacy as white women. For instance, police officers took advantage of their power to force black women into sexual intercourse (Crenshaw, 1991). Females were threatened before being stripped naked by the police, even in public. The practice demonstrates that in the United States, white men took black women as sex objects (Crenshaw, 1991). At the same time, white women were treated with more respect and decency when it came to the matter of intercourse. Sexual slavery and discrimination in relation to black women was a controversial topic to discuss with the white person because the latter never admitted being racist. Whites’ perception of the ill-treatment that blacks experienced was not attached to emotions. The dominant race had no feeling of remorse for the nature of the atrocities they were committing against the black population.
Historical oppression has historically involved people of color and other marginalized groups, for instance, LGBT. Those individuals were demeaned by culture, denied, and disadvantaged when it came to equal opportunities and treatment (Sue et al., 2019). Today, cultural monoculturalism encompasses bias against racial, ethnic, or other marginal groups. Cultural encapsulation is seen as ignorance or the lack of understanding of another cultural background and the influence of cultural history on an individual’s current worldview. In my personal experience, macroaggressions may occur during therapy if the therapist is too harsh and comments negatively about the client’s behavior (Sue et al., 2019). Macroaggression that I have experienced is an individual mistaking a person of color as a servant. I have also witnessed several female doctors being mistaken for nurses. Knowing that small mistakes can be forms of macroaggression, I would discourage people from assuming things they are not sure of to avoid hurting others. At the same time, emotions and psychological setbacks that black medical employees could experience due to this macroaggression are never discussed, and there is no way a white doctor can truly relate to such experiences.
As a result, one can mention many examples of how the concept of white privilege manifests itself. The implications of it can be seen in social, economic, political, and cultural settings, where racism and abuse based on race are deeply rooted in society. Hence, the traces of the past affect the present in the form of white privilege, which cannot be seen but can be felt. The negative experiences of being subjected to prejudice based on skin color are a common phenomenon that only people of color can understand. The absence of this knowledge may be viewed as an example of white privilege itself. This proves that the concept in question is real and valid and has preserved its adaptive nature.
The Concept of Colorblindness
Liberalism has been the stepping stone of democracy in the past and a feature of modern democracy today, where nations describe freedom in the rule of law and various civil liberties. As Yogeeswaran et al. (2018) note, in today’s society, people primarily strive to be colorblind because it is a liberal way of gaining racial innocence while opposing different affirmative actions and other policies that are racially conscious. However, the idea is that racism should not be considered in economic or legal choices or in assessing the character of a person, which is regarded as a liberal ideal of life. In the past, it was the civil rights movement’s goal, which was captured mostly by Martin Luther King’s plea. In his speech, he said that people should not be assessed “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” (Yogeeswaran et al., 2018, p. 283). Therefore, through the civil rights act of 1954, the integration of a segregated society based on race began, which has been marked as one of the liberal achievements in the US.
Hence, colorblindness should be encouraged because it sends the message that ethnicity and race do not matter and that people should not look at and judge an individual based on it. It states that individuals should all become the same to create a society where people become indistinguishable from one another (Yogeeswaran et al., 2018). Moreover, individuals are inspired to lose the things that make out cultural and racial groups unique and blend to become one. As a result, this blending will enable people not to pay attention to issues of color anymore.
Conservatives in the past may indeed have coopted colorblindness; however, when people belittle the idea that race does not matter, it risks the legacy of the civil rights movement. The reason is that the civil rights movement in the past was a great response to a world where race mattered. The Jim Crow South’s legalization of racial segregation, it determined what neighborhoods people could move into, the loans they could get, the education that they received, and the jobs they could do (Jones, 2018). It took years of protests and the lobbying of various civil rights activists to sell the idea alien to many white individuals in the mid- 20th century. At the same time, through the struggle of the activists, numerous white Americans were convinced that people were to count on equal opportunities despite their race (Jones, 2018). Thus, colorblindness may be considered a flexible phenomenon that can travel well.
However, some individuals do not support the idea of colorblindness and argue that race should explicitly be taken into account. The reason is that colorblindness tends not to examine the larger picture concerning cultural and racial differences, values, and stereotypes (Yogeeswaran et al., 2018). Therefore, instead of considering the issue from an enlightened position, colorblindness does not allow people to talk about the issue of racism; hence, it does not help find ways of solving it. Consequently, colorblindness is a concept that is still discussed and has its conceptual downsides.
Conclusion
Racism has long been the center of political, social, and economic inequalities in the US, which has affected different population groups, such as women, children, and youths. To conquer the issue, many social justice theories were developed to conceptualize and resolve it. However, not all of these theories, although valid, are equally accepted in society. The concept of colorblindness offers a solution to racism by eliminating the concept of race itself. This theory is still being discussed as by eliminating the concept of race, the historical context and disparities experienced by people of color may be ignored or forgotten. The concept of white privilege seems to be proven practically because the issue can be tracked in everyday life today.
References
Bhopal, K. (2018). White privilege: The myth of a post-racial society. Policy Press.
Crenshaw, K. W. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299.
Jones, A. G. (2018). James Baldwin on Madison Avenue [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Vanderbilt University.
Sue, D. W., Sue, D., Neville, H. A., & Smith, L. (2019). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (8th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Yogeeswaran, K., Verkuyten, M., Osborne, D., & Sibley, C. G. (2018). “I have a dream” of a colorblind nation? Examining the relationship between racial colorblindness, system justification, and support for policies that redress inequalities. Journal of Social Issues, 74(2), 282-298.